The actor was going nowhere when a local prophet told him he was going to become a great man.

Denzel Washington's destiny was laid out for him in a prophecy when he was a college drop-out.

A respected elderly woman from his mother's church visited her beauty salon one afternoon as young Denzel was trying to piece his life together - and she couldn't take her eyes off the teenager.

"I could see her in the mirror behind me and every time I looked in the mirror she was looking right at me," he tells Access Hollywood. "It was March 27th, 1975 and I started acting four months later and she said, 'You know young man, you are gonna travel the world and speak or preach to millions of people'.

"She said that and then she wrote 'Prophecy' - she couldn't even spell it well - and then my mother wrote, 'Preacher', and then I wrote my name. It was on a blue envelope; I still have it.

"When she left, I said to my mother, 'Who was that lady?' and she said, 'She's one of the oldest church members in town and she's known to have the gift of prophecy...'"

Denzel admits that encounter made him appreciate his journey as an actor as he started out.

"This was supposed to be my life," he adds. "She actually called it. It's nothing I did... I knew I had a purpose, so when things started happening, I had to understand that this was supposed to happen. I'm not here to tell you I did all the right things..."

The Oscar winner is now up for another Academy Award after landing a Best Actor nod for Fences, a film he also directed.